Illinois Legislator Tries To Amend Video Game Law That Was Deemed Unconstitutional

from the but-not-to-fix-it dept

Fri, Jan 30th 2009 1:13pm — Mike Masnick

Illinois was one of the early ones in a long list of states that tried and failed to set up anti-video game laws. It was (I think) either the second or third such law to then be thrown out as unconstitutional. Since then, nine or ten more states have all tried and failed to implement similar laws. However, it looks like one legislator in Illinois hasn't been paying much attention. He's trying to add some more clauses to the law, more than three years after it was rejected as unconstitutional. Of course, if he was looking to amend it in a way that fixed the unconstitutional part, you might understand it. But, he's not. He's just adding more restrictions to a law that has been deemed unenforceable. Another great moment in politics.

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Filed Under: illinois, video games

12 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 2:06pm

Senators should be like presidents,
2 terms and done. Most of these career Legislators are so out of touch with what the people actually want that they just try to push there latest crap ass idea and not think about what really needs to happen.
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- Pitabred, 30 Jan 2009 @ 2:30pm
  
  Re: Senators should be like presidents,
  Naah, not 2 terms and done. Let's do a 3-strikes constitutionality test... if you support unconstitutional legislation 3 times, you're out. If you propose it once, let's go with zero-tolerance. If it's good enough for our kids, it should be good enough for our legislators.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 2:52pm
    
    Re: Re: Senators should be like presidents,
    I like this idea.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 5:17pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Senators should be like presidents,
      "Let's do a 3-strikes constitutionality test... if you support unconstitutional legislation 3 times, you're out."
      
      This sounds like a very reasonable idea.
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doublebackslash, 30 Jan 2009 @ 2:07pm

The book question
If someone were to put out laws like these for books how would the public react?
I hope and expect that they would be floored, absolutely outraged. Video games are narrative works of art. Like art some of it is not appropriate for minors, and some of it barely deserves the title, but it should be treated the same as a ye olde book.
Any law that tries to say differently is trying to cater to the mothers of precious snowflakes that need protecting.
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Derek Kerton (profile), 30 Jan 2009 @ 3:01pm

Wow! That Senator Is Way Out Of Touch
What does a state Senate seat go for in Illinois? Apparently the market was working on setting a price for a federal seat, but Blago was stopped. Seems unfair to him, as we all know the market can't be wrong.
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DueDoe, 30 Jan 2009 @ 3:14pm

Bail Me out
Bail Me out!
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Bazil, 30 Jan 2009 @ 4:24pm

A little Information please
What was the law actually proposing?

What were the amendments to the law proposed?

What was deemed unconstitutional by the law?

Seriously I know it's techdirt not a pulitzer prize winning publication, but for god sake try to be a LITTLE informative. your links are more clueless than your "articles".

Write a COMPLETE article for once, not this constant half ass attempt at journalism.

I know i'm being harsh but I wanna keep coming back to this site.
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Bazil, 30 Jan 2009 @ 4:24pm

A little Information please
What was the law actually proposing?

What were the amendments to the law proposed?

What was deemed unconstitutional by the law?

Seriously I know it's techdirt not a pulitzer prize winning publication, but for god sake try to be a LITTLE informative. your links are more clueless than your "articles".

Write a COMPLETE article for once, not this constant half ass attempt at journalism.

I know i'm being harsh but I wanna keep coming back to this site.
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- PaulT (profile), 31 Jan 2009 @ 12:31am
  
  Re: A little Information please
  Why do people like you demand that a blog operates as a primary journalistic source? Mike states his opinions, then provides links to the sources for his information. Why should he repeat himself just because you can't be bothered to follow those links?
  
  Techdirt's a blog for commentary on issues, not a source for reporting on those issues. If this is your main source for reading about said issues, then you're doing it wrong...
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raul, 31 Jan 2009 @ 8:02pm

one would think
video games have been out for quite a while, with a key demographic of 15-30, it would seem that by being as established over the last 2 decades, we would begin to see more legislators and other politicians that have now grown up in a culture of video games, atari was founded in 1972, and while the early games are nothing to what we have now, a senator would have to be 66 to have avoided being targeted by videogame companies during such influential years, if private citizens can be forced to retire, legislators should as well
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- Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2009 @ 11:36pm
  
  Re: one would think
  Yes there should be some sort of competency or accountability. I know quite a few ancient people (over 55) that could code circles around(create practical useful code) most recent college graduates.
  On the other hand, just look at the judges that decide IP and technology cases, they are appointed for life. One district court judge in South Carolina is over 80, refuses to use computers and becomes motionless, gazing off in the distance during technical testimony.
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